In 1921, Gunnar Sommerfeldt marked a milestone in the history of Scandinavian cinema with his film MARKENS GRØDE (The Growth of the Soil). This film, that was long thought to have gone missing, has been recently restored and is a further worthy addition to the Scandinavian film collection in the Europe’s Finest catalogue. In co-operation with the Norwegian Film Institute, the restored film copy has been produced as a DCP (digital cinema package), which is being offered by the Europe’s Finest digital Cinema-on-Demand service as of October 2010.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Norwegian film industry lay well behind that of the developments in its neighbouring countries, Sweden and Denmark. The elaborately staged MARKENS GRØDE signalled a turning point and for the first time Norway was recognised as a film-producing nation. The film is based on the book of the same title, published in 1917, by the Nobel prize-winning author Knut Hamsun.

In the novel, the protagonists Isak and Inger settle on a piece of land and their lives consist solely of extremely hard work. When their third child is born with cleft lip, the mother, Inger, decides to commit infanticide to put the child out of its misery. She is then committed and must go to prison; while in the meantime copper has been found near their house. Suddenly other settlers arrive in the lonely area and the pace of life changes.

Europe’s Finest has already brought numerous Scandinavian classics into the limelight, including five early works of the Swedish master director, Ingmar Bergman, and four gems of Finnish arthouse cinema of the 1940s by Teuvo Tuilo.

Film information: MARKENS GRØDE (The Growth of the Soil). Director: Gunnar Sommerfeldt, Norway 1921. Silent film with title cards (translated into various languages), 117 mins.

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